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Sara GorbySinger |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Marriage and Career Beginnings
- Early Success in America
- Wartime and Postwar Years
- European Tour and Return to Paris
- Recording Career
- Eclectic Repertoire
- Later Career and Legacy
Early Life and Education
Sarah Gorby was born in Kishinev, Moldova, in 1900. At the age of 17, she left her home country to study vocal performance in Iași, Romania. After graduating from the Iași Conservatory, Gorby married Joseph Goldstein, a newspaper publisher significantly older than herself. According to legend, one of the conditions of Gorby's singing career plan was not to have children,以免she would lose her voice, as had happened to her mother, who had seven children.
Marriage and Career Beginnings
After their wedding, Gorby and her husband moved to Rome and eventually settled in Paris. They visited Iași every year until the outbreak of World War II, sometimes giving concerts. Gorby, performing under the stage name Gorby, became popular in Latin America, her main concert venue at that time, and later in the United States, where she first arrived in December 1935.
Early Success in America
In the United States, Gorby was hailed as an "international singer" due to her multilingual repertoire. She performed at various events in New York City, including the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Musicians and Artists Fund's ball at the Sherman Square Hotel in 1935 and the organization's "intimate evening" with Gorby at the Inter-Stuyvesant Hotel in 1936.
Wartime and Postwar Years
Gorby and her husband fled Paris in 1940, first to Haiti and later to the United States. She continued to perform, focusing on Jewish and Russian songs. Her concerts included performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1944, a "farewell" concert at the Club House in 1945, and a concert at the restaurant Casino Russe in the same year.
European Tour and Return to Paris
In 1948, Gorby embarked on a European tour, giving Yiddish song concerts in displaced persons camps. She later returned to Paris in 1949, following the death of her husband in Haiti in 1950.
Recording Career
Gorby's recording career began in the early 1940s, primarily featuring songs by contemporary Jewish composers. She also performed traditional Jewish songs and composed some of her own music, such as "Ovnt-lid" (Evening Song) with lyrics by Itzik Manger. Her recordings were released on 78 rpm records, with accompaniment by orchestras led by Jacques Métehen and Robin Laufer.
Eclectic Repertoire
Gorby expanded her repertoire to include Russian songs, gypsy romances, and French and Romanian popular music. She also performed Israeli songs after the establishment of the State of Israel and recorded numerous Sephardic folk songs in Ladino.
Later Career and Legacy
In the 1950s, Gorby released long-playing records on various labels. She received the grand prix du disque in 1953. In the 1960s, she undertook a two-year tour of South America, where she recorded three LPs. Her final recordings were made in 1979.
In the 1990s, some of Gorby's old recordings were digitized and reissued on CD. Her songs have been featured in the soundtrack of the movie "Onegin" (1999). The Sarah Gorby Award is given to artists whose work is related to the Yiddish language.
Gorby's unique dialectal use of Bessarabian Yiddish in her recordings has been the subject of a sociolinguistic study by Ellen Prince, highlighting the progressive shift in her language over time.
